Writing

1. Sit in your seat and get out a sheet of paper. Be ready to start when the bell rings.
2. Write three paragraphs minimum explaining your take on the following prompt:

Has technology helped us, or has it hurt us?




3. In pairs, work through the proofreading exercise.

Spring Break is upon us!

SPELLING LIST: *IF YOUR HAND SOMETHING IN WITH ANY OF THESE ERRORS, I WILL HAND IT BACK

Spelling errors are among the most common surface errors as well as the most easily corrected. To correct spelling errors, use a spell-checker, regardless of your spelling skill, along with a dictionary to help you find the right alternative for a misspelled word. Remember that the spell-checker won’t help with homonyms, words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. Some words that can cause trouble are listed below.

Dictation:
Our team is going to the state tournament today.
1It's2 their first time in five years3, and now that they've 4passed
the quarter-final round, they'll move on,
and 5then they'll be in the finals if they 6don't 7lose.
Hopefully the 8weather won't be 9too bad so that
everyone will be in 10good spirits.

• a lot (expression of great quantity)
• allot (verb: to hand out or give)All right(not alright)Lead/Led
• Loose/lose
• Past/passed
• to (indicating direction)
• too (also)
• their (possessive. "Their dog is a poodle.")
• there ("Put it over there")
• they’re (contraction of they are)
• Than (comparison. "James is cooler than Thomas")
• Then (deals with time relationships. "And then we . . .)
• weather (it's sunny out)
• whether (indicates uncertainty; despite)
• accept (a verb, meaning to receive or to admit to a group "I was accepted into medical school")
• except ("I like everything Mom serves for Thanksgiving dinner except cranberry sauce")
• who’s (contraction of who is or who has. "Who's on first?")
• whose (possessive form of who. "Whose bike is this?")
• its (The dog wagged its tail)
• it’s (It's obvious that the butler committed the crime)
• your (possessive form of you)
• you’re (contraction of you are)
• affect (usually a verb, meaning to influence)
• effect (usually a noun, meaning result)
• than (used in comparison)
• then (refers to a time in the past)
• were (form of the verb to be)
• we’re (contraction of we are)
• where (related to location or place)
• 
  
• 
  
• Wrong: My brother and his friend commutes a lot from the coast.
  
  Dictation:
  Our team is going to the state tournament today. 
  It's their first time in five years, and now that they've passed 
  the quarter-final round, they'll move on, 
  and then they'll be in the finals if they don't lose. 
  Hopefully the weather won't be too bad so that 
  everyone will be in good spirits.
  2. Write questions of your own for the test on Night.
  3. Journal: Free write. Write as much as you can about anything at all for 5 minutes

March 13

1. Grammar review from yesterday (add this to your sentences)
Wrong: I had allot of great experiences at south, it is "the bomb!"
Right: I had a lot of great experiences at South; it's "the bomb!"
IF YOU COULD USE A PERIOD, YOU CAN'T USE JUST A COMMA
SUBJECT 1 VERB 1      .     SUBJECT 2  VERB 2
SUBJECT 1 VERB 1      ;     SUBJECT 2  VERB 2
SUBJECT 1 VERB 1      , and    SUBJECT 2  VERB 2
I had a lot of great experiences at South. It's "the bomb!"
I had a lot of great experiences at South, and I think that it's "the bomb!"

New sentences:

Wrong: The team receives it's award if they win the championship.
Right: The team will receive its award if it wins the championship.

Wrong: The profits earned by the cosmetic industry is not high enough.
Right: The profits [SUBJECT] earned by the cosmetic industry are not high enough.
Wrong: My brother and his friend commutes a lot from the coast.

2. Write questions of your own for the test on Night.
3. Journal: Free write. Write as much as you can about anything at all for 5 minutes.

*****************************************************************************

Subject-Verb Agreement

1. Make sure that the subject and verb of each clause or sentence agree—that is, that a singular subject has a singular verb, and a plural subject a plural verb. When other words come between subject and verb, you may mistake the noun nearest to the verb—before or after—for the verb’s real subject.

Wrong: A central part of my life goals have been to go to law school.
Right: A central part of my life goals has been to go to law school.

Wrong: The profits earned by the cosmetic industry is not high enough.
Right: The profits earned by the cosmetic industry are not high enough.

2. Be particularly careful that your subject and verb agree when your subject is made up of two or more parts joined by and or or; when your subject is a word like committee or jury, which can take either a singular or a plural verb depending on whether it is treated as a unit or as a group of individuals; or when your subject is a word likemathematics or measles, which looks plural but is singular in meaning.

Wrong: My brother and his friend commutes every day from Louisville.
Right: My brother and his friend commute every day from Louisville.

Wrong: The committee was taking all the responsibility themselves.
Right: The committee were taking all the responsibility themselves.
(Note that the use of the word themselves shows that committee is being treated as a group of individuals, not as a unit.)

Wrong: Measles have become less common in the United States.
Right: Measles has become less common in the United States.

To proofread for subject-verb agreement, circle the subject and verb in each sentence and be sure they agree.

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Pronouns

1. A pronoun (like I, it, you, him, her, this, themselves, someone, who, which) is used to replace another word—its antecedent—so the antecedent does not have to be repeated.Check each pronoun to make sure that it agrees with its antecedent in gender and number. Remember that words like each, either, neither, and one are singular; when they are used as antecedents, they take singular pronouns. Antecedents made up of two or more parts joined by or or nor take pronouns that agree with the nearest antecedent. Collective-noun antecedents (audience, team) can be singular or plural depending on whether they refer to a single unit or a group of individuals.

Wrong: Every one of the puppies thrived in their new home.
Right: Every one of the puppies thrived in its new home.

Wrong: Neither Jane nor Susan felt that they had been treated fairly.
Right: Neither Jane nor Susan felt that she had been treated fairly.

Wrong: The team frequently changed its positions to get varied experience.
Right: The team frequently changed their positions to get varied experience.

March 11, 2014

Journal prompts for Night

Get out a sheet of paper and at the top write: 




Sentence corrections: punctuation, grammar, 

and spelling.

3/12/14 Sentence for the day: Copy this sentence and then write the correct version underneath.
Wrong: The ship was huge, its mast stood thirty feet high.
Right: The ship was huge; its mast stood thirty feet high.
Right: The ship[subject1] was [verb1]huge, and its mast [subject2] stood [verb2] thirty feet high.
IF YOU COULD USE A PERIOD, YOU CAN'T JUST USE  A COMMA.
 ,+and = period
 ; = period




Right:The ship [SUBJECT1] was [VERB1] huge, and its mast [SUBJECT2] stood [VERB2] thirty feet high.

or Right: The ship was huge, its mast stood thirty feet high.
or The ship was huge; its mast stood thirty feet high.

COMMON ERRORS THAT YOU MUST AVOID IN ALL WRITTEN WORK THAT YOU HAND IN:
PUNCTUATION
   Six Common Punctuation Errors That Bedevil Bloggers *IF YOUR HAND SOMETHING IN WITH ANY OF THESE ERRORS, I WILL HAND IT BACK
   50 Common Punctuation Mistakes
GRAMMAR
   Common Spelling, Grammar, and Usage Errors
USAGE
SPELLING

Sentence for the day:
Wrong: The ship was huge, its mast stood thirty feet high.
Right:
or Right:

SPELLING LIST: *IF YOUR HAND SOMETHING IN WITH ANY OF THESE ERRORS, I WILL HAND IT BACK

Spelling errors are among the most common surface errors as well as the most easily corrected. To correct spelling errors, use a spell-checker, regardless of your spelling skill, along with a dictionary to help you find the right alternative for a misspelled word. Remember that the spell-checker won’t help with homonyms, words that sound alike but have different spellings and meanings. Some words that can cause trouble are listed below.

• a lot (expression of great quantity)
• allot (verb: to hand out or give)
• All right(not alright)
• Lead/Led
• Loose/lose
• Past/passed
• to (indicating direction)
• too (also)
• their (possessive. "Their dog is a poodle.")
• there ("Put it over there")
• they’re (contraction of they are)
• Than (comparison. "James is cooler than Thomas")
• Then (deals with time relationships. "And then we . . .)
• weather (it's sunny out)
• whether (indicates uncertainty; despite)
• accept (a verb, meaning to receive or to admit to a group "I was accepted into medical school")
• except ("I like everything Mom serves for Thanksgiving dinner except cranberry sauce")
• who’s (contraction of who is or who has. "Who's on first?")
• whose (possessive form of who. "Whose bike is this?")
• its (The dog wagged its tail)
• it’s (It's obvious that the butler committed the crime)
• your (possessive form of you)
• you’re (contraction of you are)
• affect (usually a verb, meaning to influence)
• effect (usually a noun, meaning result)
• than (used in comparison)
• then (refers to a time in the past)
• were (form of the verb to be)
• we’re (contraction of we are)
• where (related to location or place)
• 
  
• 
  
• Wrong: My brother and his friend commutes a lot from the coast.
  
  2. Write questions of your own for the test on Night.
  3. Journal: Free write. Write as much as you can about anything at all for 5 minutes.

Wrong: The boy's will go to the school tomorrow.
Right: The boys will go to school tomorrow.
Wrong: Before going to the school Joe stopped at my house.
Right: Before going to the school, Joe stopped at my house.
Wrong in American English: Uncle John said, "My car is blue".
Right in English: Uncle John said, "My car is blue."
Wrong: The car costs $10,000, I am going to buy it.
Right. The car costs $10000. I am going to buy it.
Right: The car costs $10000, and I am going to buy it.

Right. The car costs $10000. I am going to buy it.

Right: The car costs $10000, and I am going to buy it.

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Today's prompt:
Elie Weisel was given a terrible challenge that, in many ways ruined his life, and yet at the same time, he was able to overcome that challenge to a great degree. Now I want you to think of a challenge you have faced. I don't think that it will be quite as extreme or harsh an example, but sometimes we face great challenges. Everyone does. Here's the prompt:
1. What has been your greatest life challenge? 2.What did you have to do to overcome this challenge? (or tell me what you plan to do to overcome it now, or at least to deal with it.)

Answer journal prompt in two paragraphs. Be sure that each paragraph starts with a topic sentence and has at least two other sentences developing your idea.

Here's an effective way to organize a paragraph:

1. Topic sentence (your idea)
2. Example that illustrates the idea
3. Explanation of how the example ties in with the idea in the topic sentence (an extra sentence or two of explanation may be added here)
4. Concluding sentence that sums up what you said.

Vocabulary for Night: Night  

One of the best ways to study vocabulary is to read example sentences and to write your own.
See yourdictionary.com  for great example sentences that use the word in context.

March 10

Journal prompts for Night


Vocabulary for Night: Night  

MARCH 6

PUT FIRST NAME, LAST NAME, DATE, PERIOD, AND TITLE ON ALL PAPERS!!!!!
Starting today, you will be docked points every time you mess up.
}:-[

Time to finish Night

Homework: Finish Night if you  haven't already!
Test on Wednesday. To study for the test, you need to:

• Answer all of the questions in the study guide
• Review the book on Sparknotes: summary of Night
• 
  

Today:

1. Work on finishing up your study guide. It's due Tuesday and is worth 30 points
2. Hand in your Short, short story. Make it good. Most students do not get top scores because they don't try. Usually the not-so-good ones are basic statements and don't have a guiding idea or theme. For example, here's one (off the top of my head) that's not good:
      Baby shoes are such cute little shoes.
 or  It was awesome to make a hole in one!
Better would be:
     The cute baby shoes should have been worn more.
 or  The hole in one was the defining moment in his struggle for a meaningful life.
In the revisions there is a guiding idea. See what I mean? It shows what is important in life, not just what happened. Write a story that shows what you value or what's important in life (or some other theme)
3. If you haven't done so already, hand in the 1/2-1 full page on The Story That Your Shoes Tell.
4. Vocabulary for Friday Vocabulary  Night  "Emaciated" to "Vigilance"



The other day we watched the YouTube video on Elie Wiesel's trip to Auschwitz with Opra Winfrey. He talked about the shoes of the people who died, and how much is said about their lives simply by shoe that was left behind. Shoes tell a story, he says. It's a story of who the person was, what the person valued in life, where the person and been in life (maybe there was mud on the shoe from a path they had trod, for example), and other things. We can imagine where that person might have gone (maybe found a cure for cancer, for example).

This was your assignment:
Look at your shoe. Examine it closely, very closely, Think about the wear and tear on it and where it has been. Think about how you have felt in each one of those places. What does this say about who you are and where you are going in life? 
What is the story that your shoe tells of your life?

The short, short story genre.
During the 1920's the author Ernest Hemingway won an interesting bet with his friends. He bet them that he could write a thought-provoking and complete short story in less than 10 words. Here's Hemingway's story: "For sale: baby shoes. Never worn."
If you think about it, that story says a whole lot about the family the baby was born into. So sad, isn't it?

Here are some examples of other stories like his: Short, Short Stories
ASSIGNMENT:
Now, write your own short, short story. Remember, it needs a beginning, and middle, and an end and must have a controlling idea. Keep in mind that fiction deals with life themes, such as loss, redemption, the quest for knowledge, etc.


We will submit these stories to INK for publication. Make them good.
Due Monday. Typed. Feel free to hand in three or four of them.

Vocabulary  Night

Sparknotes summary of Night

Brief History of the Jewish People
Continuing History--Creation of the Jewish State

Judaism--terminology
   Babylonian Civilization
   Israel

Auschewitz Death Camp--Oprah Winfrey tours the Auschewitz museum with Elie Wiesel